Robbery suspect allegedly takes hostage inside KeyBank

Police: Customer released before man flees from building with cash.

Police: Customer released before man flees from building with cash.

December 22, 2005|ALICIA GALLEGOS Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- An armed man reportedly grabbed a customer as a hostage Wednesday afternoon during a robbery at the McKinley Avenue KeyBank. The suspect, a short man believed to be in his early 20s, had a handgun and entered the bank at 3617 E. McKinley Ave. about 1:45 p.m. and immediately accosted a woman, police said. Eventually, the customer was released, and the man jumped the counter, pushed a teller to the ground and grabbed cash before fleeing the bank. A customer said she was just walking into the building as the suspect was running out. "He ran past me as I was standing there," the Mishawaka resident said. "He had stacks of money in one hand and one hand in his coat." South Bend Police quickly set up a perimeter in the area and tried to track the man, who reportedly headed north from the bank on foot. Officers along with a K-9 Unit scoured the area behind Pin Oak Manor apartments on Hickory Road in Mishawaka. They didn't locate him, but they did find a dye pack and cash in the snow behind Buczolich Family Dentistry next door to the KeyBank. "When we came back from lunch, all the action was happening," said Buczolich employee Marie Tetzlaff. No one was injured in the afternoon robbery, but everyone inside the bank was visibly shaken, said South Bend Sgt. Gene Eyster. The customer who witnessed the robbery said it didn't register in her mind until later. "I starting getting more upset the more I thought about it," she said. The robbery was the second for the McKinley Avenue bank in less than two months. Anyone with information is asked to contact Crime Stopper at (574) 289-STOP or the SBPD Detective Bureau at (574) 235-9263.